Large Apple logo goes up at Bill Graham Auditorium ahead of iPhone event — Apple is putting a legion of carpenters, electricians, security personnel and other contractors to work this US Labor Day weekend as it readies San Francisco’s Bill Graham Auditorium for what is expected to be a massive iPhone event next week.

How to protect your data, part two — In part two, Apple World Today looks at hardware.

How to remove objects in your photos with Photoshop’s content-aware tools — It doesn’t take expert Photoshop skills to make unwanted objects vanish from your photos.

ArtistInfo helps fill in iTunes’ missing pieces — If you’re totally into buying your music online, you may miss all the great info once found in CD booklets and album covers. ArtistInfo by Metazoan is an application for Mac OS 10.9 and later that works in conjunction with iTunes to serve up a smorgasbord of info on musicians, music groups, producers and composers.

Controversial Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine premieres online and at limited screenings — Alex Gibney’s documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, which has been heavily criticised by Apple executives, made its official debut on Friday, appearing in a limited theatrical run, as well as on a variety of online services. Here are Macworld’s ‘four takeaways‘.

Belgium’s first Apple Store to open in Brussels on Toison d’Or on September 19th — Apple has reportedly confirmed plans to open its first Belgian store in the capital city of Brussels on September 19th, erecting a special construction barricade around a building on Avenue Toison d’Or.

Apple may be about to change its Mac and iOS display font to its own San Francisco, which is used on Apple Watch

Macworld’s review of the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro — The 13-inch MacBook Air changes are relatively minor, but its standing in Apple’s lineup is what changed the most. While the MacBook Air is still an ultra portable laptop, there’s a newfound emphasis on its value – the four recently-refreshed models make up the affordable end of Apple’s laptop lineup.

Intel may be prepping next-gen Skylake chips for August debut, may curtail Broadwell sales — Chip giant Intel is reportedly targeting August of this year for the initial rollout of its next-generation Skylake microarchitecture, a timeline that likely means Apple’s high-end Macs will skip the oft-delayed Broadwell line.

Regent Street Apple Store to undergo major renovations for more light, street visibility — Apple is planning a major renovation of its flagship Regent Street store in London, one which will radically impact the interior and exterior appearance of the building.

Do you need to care if Apple changes its system font? — 9to5Mac has reported that Apple may switch out the system font used in OS X and iOS from Helvetica Neue to San Francisco, the font it developed in-house for the Apple Watch. And that has half the Apple community bellowing denunciations that this is a stupid idea, and half yelling that OS X 10.11 and iOS 9 (when the switch is rumoured to happen) can’t come soon enough. [Can’t wait – I really dislike boring, personality-free, grossly-overused Helvetica.]If you want it now, this link tells you how.

The new Apple Store in Chongqing’s Guotai Plaza will be the company’s fourth shot at combining a cavernous underground space with an above-ground landmark (and no, I have no faith in Mayor Brown’s idea that Auckland’s getting an Apple Store, BTW).

My favourite Mac word processor on special — Nisus Software has teamed up with great developers of great tools such as Scrivener, DEVONthink Pro, Tinderbox, Aeon Timeline, and of course Nisus Writer Pro. Use this special link to save 25% on Nisus Writer Pro. To save 25% on other excellent WinterFest software use the coupon code WINTERFEST2014 during checkout.
You can learn more about this collection of exceptional software for writers from the WinterFest 2014 page.

OWC’s Viper Pro SSD-based external hard drives —These sport dual Thunderbolt 2 ports, which the company says can push transfer speeds up to 1,400 megabytes per second. The drives will be available in 4-terabyte and 8-terabyte capacities, and users will have the option to purchases a RAID edition preconfigured in RAID 4.

Cupertino publishes official aerial photograph of Campus 2 construction — The City of Cupertino California recently updated Apple’s public Campus 2 project page with current project status information and a new aerial photograph (above) showcasing the work being done on the site. Construction is occurring at a rapid pace with the circular foundation of the new campus building visible in the photograph.

Apple readies new, non-floating Apple Store in Venice, Italy — Apple is set to unveil a new, one-of-a-kind retail store in Venice, Italy that will be filled wall-to-wall with all manner of unknown goodies. The store is located at the Nave de Vero mall, and is currently covered with an impenetrable black shroud.

Andrew Cunningham uses OS 9 for a couple of days —So here I am on a battered PowerBook that will barely hold a charge, playing with classic Mac OS (version 9.2.2) and trying to appreciate the work of those who developed the software in the mid-to-late ’90s (and to amuse my co-workers). [It’s a long, three-page article.]

The pre-history of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue Apple Store cube — Probably the most iconic Apple Store is the one in the plaza of the GM Building on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The store’s signature architectural feature, a 32-foot glass cube emblazoned with a glowing Apple logo, is immediately recognizable . NY Magazine’s Vicky Ward provided the back story to the origins of the cube in an article published yesterday.

Two scenarios that can make OS X vulnerable to the Shellshock Bash bug — Apple’s OS X is vulnerable to the Shellshock bug, but it’s not easy for attackers to take advantage of it, according to Intego, which specialises in security software for the operating system.

Apple rumoured to launch 27″ iMac with 5K Retina display at October media event — Apple’s big-screen iMac will get a doubled-resolution Retina display with a forthcoming update expected to be unveiled at the company’s anticipated October media event, a new report claims.

Apple’s stock buybacks spurred massive share price increase — With Apple making more money than it knows what to do with, the company in March of 2012 announced a capital return program consisting of stock buybacks and dividends. The initial program was designed to return $45 billion in value to shareholders, but as the money continued to roll in, Apple earlier this year upped the program to $130 billion.
With the majority of Apple’s $130 billion capital return program centring on stock buybacks, Apple’s share price has been on quite a roll of late.

Beats by Dr Dré now has its own section on the Apple Store online

Beats by Dr Dre gets its own section on Apple’s online store — Apple on Thursday updated its online storefront to give newly-official subsidiary Beats by Dr Dre its own section under the store’s Accessories category, days after shuttering Beats’s own internet shop. The new section offers Beats’s entire hardware product line, including headphones and portable speakers. Also up for grabs are accessories like protective sleeves and the “Pill Dude” personified speaker stands for the Beats Pill. (Yes, it’s in the NZ Store too, pictured above.)

Integrating women into the Apple community — Brianna Wu writes “No one else in the industry seems to include women in its messaging like it [Apple] does. The company doesn’t market its products with testosterone-soaked machismo. It doesn’t send embarrassing tweets about booth babes …
“But it’s very hard for me to reconcile this consumer-facing Apple with the development company that put no women on stage this year for either the 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference keynote or the more-technical State of the Union. It’s difficult to connect this Apple I know and trust with the endless sea of white, male faces I saw at Yerba Buena Gardens during this year’s WWDC Bash. Women buy Apple products. We develop on Apple hardware. But we’re still not yet well-represented in Apple’s developer community.” [This is a very good read, and something we should all be thinking about.]

Apple Campus 2 Update: on track for 2016 move in, new pics — Demolition and construction is well underway for Apple’s new “space ship” campus, and new information from the city of Cupertino says the project should be finished by the end of 2016. The city also released new photos showing the construction so fay along with how the campus fits in with the surrounding area.

Apple Mac, iPhone & iPad news for New Zealanders

Mark Webster | Mac NZ

The home of Apple info for New Zealanders. Contact Mark by email for Mac help and advice (click Training at top right). Mac NZ serves daily Apple news from the world of Apple Inc & reviews, tips & advice around Apple & related hardware & software.

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